Romper Stomper [VHS]

Romper Stomper [VHS]
by Geoffrey Wright

Romper Stomper [VHS]

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Product details

Actor: Alex Scott, Daniel Pollock, Jacqueline McKenzie, Leigh Russell, Russell Crowe
Director: Geoffrey Wright
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language), Analog; German (Original Language); Japanese (Original Language); Vietnamese (Original Language)
Format: Color, NTSC, Original recording reissued
Running Time: 88 minutes
Release Date: 1997-11-11
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Publisher: Fox Lorber
Studio: Fox Lorber

VHS Movie Reviews of Romper Stomper [VHS]

Movie Review: no better than average
Summary: 3 Stars

There's never really been a comprehensively good movie about skinheads. There's American History X, of course, but the movie has an unsatisfying finale. As does this movie, Russell Crowe's breakthrough film about a gang of skinheads in Australia.

Though it gets off to a great and shocking start and begins to capably explore the Gabrielle's background, by the final third the movie has degenerated into nothing more than a garden-variety love-triangle flick. This director really had the chance to say something meaningful about his characters and what drove them to their high-velocity lifestyles, but I don't think he was able to come up with anything coherent.

Movie Review: Total War
Summary: 5 Stars

The best films about politicised maladjusted sociopaths are the ones where the director has the nous to follow his exploitation instincts rather than his leaky morals, and concentrate on the maladjusted rather than the politicised.
That is to say: scratch the surface of Russell Crowe's 'Romper Stomper' character - Hando - a deeply rotten, misguided Australian fascist and you'll find another deeply rotten, misguided Australian fascist - waiting for his turn with the knuckleduster.

Oh but Hando is a man of letters; a man for our time.
Only he and his cretinous sheep mentality cohorts can see the end of the world - and it's approaching with slanty eyes, a wok full of money and the ignoble intention of de-Aryanising their blatantly bogus pure-blood world.

They respond magnificently: this is Rourke's Drift or the Bastille all over again; restaged in dismal 90's Melbourne and played out with pool-cues, rice-flails, bottles and knives.

You can't help cheering. The violence (and let's be straight here; that alone is 'Romper Stomper's nub) doesn't half get that blood pumping Better than a chemical jump-lead any time...

We begin with the brutal beating of 3 Vietnamese kids riding skateboards at a Lynchian hissing and steam-obscured railway station. A camera-eye view of their euphoric last ride - straight into Hando and his club (literally) of fine men and women who proceed to punch and kick them 'til they can't move anymore.
The bravery epitomised here is worthy of honours: those skateboarding Asian children appear an appalling threat to Aussie culture - particularly the sobbing girl who gets held down by two gallant upholders of Melbourne's heritage - and punched in the face by another.

From here on in, most of the rest of 'Romper Stomper' is a running battle between the electrifying Crowe's skinhead platoon of the free, and the overwhelming, fierce, all-conquering Vietnamese invaders.
They skirmish with other insurgents along the way: a couple of gay hippies find the sharing of social airs-and-graces with Hando painfully futile - and inevitably the police, who simply love skinheads and start shooting them straight away.
The razors-edge climax is a sea-side showdown between Hando and his not-so-trusty fight-lieutenant Davey over a scatty, highly dangerous sex-kitten who's been playing them off against each other throughout the film.
By this time Hando is off the deep end. Killing indiscriminately; eyes bulging; ranting all over the place.
Insultingly stereotypical - but brilliant fun all the same.

'Romper Stomper' is a highly contentious movie but I won't see why: it glamorizes violence - a tried and tested ratings winner and something I approve of whole-heartedly.
It presents as noble and intellectual, bone-headed fascists bent on social self-destruction and the preservation of a way of life that doesn't exist anyway; there's profanity, explicit sex, callous humour and a roaring Nazi-punk soundtrack.
So the problem is...?

Crowe is splendid as the charismatic but declining Hando - sanity steadily ebbing away - holding on to his twisted ideals to the last.
He reads from 'Mein Kampf' and it turns your blood to ice.
I'm sure I'm not alone taking his side in the final battle with boring, conscientious Davey - and like hey - all it takes is a blue-tinted sex-session with a hot nymphette to drive all that nasty Nazism to the hills.
I really think so.

The point:
'Romper Stomper' is a gripping action thriller about amusingly sarcastic mad-men wearing shaven heads and Crombie overcoats, hitting on minorities and getting wasted. If you can find deep political issue or even satire here - you're doing well.
It is NOT 'A Clockwork Orange' - it IS all about counterfeit sensationalism and cynical controversialism. (!)
It would be greedy to expect more...

Movie Review: Romper STomper
Summary: 5 Stars

Good movie. Very Violent. Discontinued, hard to find. Excellent early role by Russel.

Movie Review: Savage and unjustified; a film that targets the senseless and exposes their sickness...
Summary: 5 Stars

When `Romper Stomper' opens one is immediately drawn into the sick and twisted mind of Hando, leader of a group of Skinheads residing in Melbourne, Australia. This first scene depicts a harsh and spontaneous burst of violence towards a small group of Asians and is unsettling and disturbing and perfectly sets the tone for this brutal film.

`Romper Stomper' tells the story of this racist clan as they embark on a war against the Vietnamese community that is infesting their homeland. The raw and gritty depictions of violence and hatred are gut wrenching and fearless in that they don't beg to be justified or understood but clearly just want to be recognized. Director and screenwriter Geoffrey Wright manages to create a world so dark and scary that one feels almost compelled to investigate. I remember when I first witnessed this film I was appalled at its apparent lack of moral center. None of these characters are even given a sympathetic bone. I had just come down from the high that was `American History X', a film that manages to creep inside the disease of racism from an angle of understanding, and so when I saw the way their hatred was calloused and without remote justification I was taken aback. Then I realized just how brilliant this technique was.

`Romper Stomper' decides to target the senselessness of racism and it does so masterfully. As Hando and his clan fall apart from the inside out, their personalities breeding controversy and segregation from within their own ranks, you can see that this breed of human can't even coexist with their own kind. Then ending is brutally savage yet justified in its delivery. It wouldn't feel right any other way.

Russell Crowe gives what might be his finest screen performance ever, and what truly serves to be one of the finest performances by any actor; period. As Hando he is savage and ruthless, donning a cold and often unsettling exterior that breathes a life of superiority. You recognize his power; you understand he owns you and you are ready to devote yourself to him. There is a scene where he is explaining to Gabe, a young runaway who joins his clan, Hitler's words in Mein Kampf, and it's in that scene that you see who this man really is; how sick and demented and unholy his soul is. Crowe gives such a rich and powerful portrayal of a man convinsed his own imperfections are godlike.

The rest of the cast delivers as well. Jacqueline McKenzie manages to capture a sensual attraction that makes her `chink in the clan chain' all the more understandable, and Daniel Pollock, who plays Hando's right hand man Davey, delivers a knockout performances, channeling the misplaced loyalty and the confliction this man faces as the film draws to a close. His untimely death only makes this film in general all the more tragic.

In the end I will say that `Romper Stomper' is not a film for everyone to enjoy. There are many aspects of this film that are disturbing, and the fact that it desires no sympathy and really exacts no justice (not at least in an ultimate sense) can put some people off. When we as a society consider the acts of racism and hatred we like to be put at ease by either witnessing a change in a person (as in `American History X') or finding a balance in understanding (as in `Crash'...sort of) or finding the ultimate act of justice in punishment. `Romper Stomper' somewhat goes for the later, but not in a way you would expect. This may leave some viewers cold as the film never really condemns these Skinheads for their actions. Maybe that is the point though. Maybe, just maybe, we are not supposed to condemn as much as observe; and observe we do.

Movie Review: 1 Dimentional, but good for that
Summary: 3 Stars

Lots of violence, but you don't really care. It's the bad guy skinheads against the perfectly innocent: Vietnamese, gay hobos, and rich paedophile. There's no attempt to understand the characters, just make 'em stupid-- it's enough.
That said, the pacing and structure of the film ARE interesting. I found my heart beating fast despite myself. The scenes are well done, and the main actors did what they could with the skimpy material. I recommend the VHS version rather than the DVD version which evidently censors the sex scenes. Those would be a shame to miss. --Mykel

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Summary of Romper Stomper [VHS]

The burning intensity of Russell Crowe (L.A. Confidential) first lit up screens as a hate-filled, Mein Kampf-spouting skinhead in this brutal Australian drama. Crowe glowers from under his deep-set eyes as Hando, the creepy but charismatic leader of a racist gang who declares war on the Asian immigrants pouring into Melbourne. His rage erupts in violent attacks on the local Vietnamese community, but when his victims fight back his gang breaks up, and Hando flees the city with his best buddy Davey (Daniel Pollock) and redheaded hellion Gabe (Jacqueline McKenzie), a rich girl runaway who turns the dynamic duo into a splintered love triangle. Writer-director Geoffrey Wright's matter-of-fact treatment of this subculture eschews social commentary for visceral immediacy. His portrait of white supremacist punks living like squatters on the fringes of Australian society is powered by coiled anger and simmering frustration, which finds its outlet in brutal fights and murderous rampages (the intense violence earned the film an NC-17 rating). The lack of moral position may bother some people, especially in light of Wright's sympathetic treatment of particular members of Hando's racist army, and the cold, hate-driven violence is sometimes hard to watch, but his vivid characters and richly drawn world create a compelling drama for adventurous filmgoers. --Sean Axmaker

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